polmcs

Inaugural cruise🤔 one word… Titanic! 😳

Plus an 18% gratuity on the $5 delta

I just got an EZAir schedule change for a flight out of SFO that previously departed around 1PM. The new departure time is now 12PM, so Princess is obviously happy to allow a flight that soon after disembarking.

$34 pp

The confirmation email contains a link back to the bidding site. You can see your bid status, amend, or cancel it, or place an additional bid on a different cabin category.

As a follow up, yesterday I resubmitted the bid that went missing, along with one other bid for a slightly higher category than I’m in now. Again, no email confirmation of the bids. This morning I’m checking the bids and see the two new bids, plus the expired bid from yesterday. I decide to place another bid on a much higher category, so duly submitted the bid. 5 mins later an email shows up from Princess to say that they’ve received my bid and it lists all 4 bids, including the expired one. The three remaining bids show cabins available, but just not in the parts of the shop that I prefer, so my bids were somewhat on the low side. We’ll see what happens.

I bid about halfway between the min and max bids on the higher category cabin, that now shows expired. I bid just above the min on the lower category cabin. I did go and look at “open” cabins doing a dummy booking and now see that the higher category cabins are no longer for sale (not even guarantees). Perhaps I was outbid hence the “expired” status (rather than “thanks for playing”), but it doesn’t explain why the lower category bid simply disappeared. I see 2 unassigned cabins in that lower category on the same dummy booking, so I resubmitted my bid on the lower category cabin. Let’s see what happens.

As a follow up, I was able to click a link on the bidding page for the higher stateroom. That gets me to page where I can see the bids. It shows my offer as expired. No notification was ever received ☹️. I blame it on the big box booking

Anyone have a bid disappear? I bid on 2 different staterooms. As I booked through a big box store, I check the status on my own, rather rely on getting a mail from Princess (none received when I bid), or by getting a call from the big box store. Previously when checking the status, I would land on a page where I would see my 2 bids and they would show as pending. I checked this morning and I now land on the bidding page. My higher category stateroom shows offer received, but I’m invited to place a bid on the lower category stateroom, along with the other categories that I did not bid on. No sign of a rejection on the lower category.

I’ve done a HI circle cruise out LA before when the first port of call was Ensenada to get the foreign port call out of the way first. It was a Christmas/New Year cruise, so I’m guessing Princess thought the holidays would line up better with the switch in port order. The entire ship cleared US immigration the day before arriving our first HI port of call. Some US immigration officers got a nice little jolly out of that one! They had to work a few hours one day and get to spend 5 days on a ship, at no cost to them. Upon arrival in San Pedro, as we had not visited any foreign countries after departing HI, we simply walked off the ship and picked up our luggage and walked out of the terminal and were on our way home.

The club class menu is the same as in the MDR, though usually will have 1 extra dish available. The suite breakfast menu in Sabatini’s is completely different. That said, the suite menu can be treated as a suggestion. There is no problem with ordering off menu. If they have it available, they will cook it for you, which is another plus as it’s usually fresh made upon ordering.

Staying in a suite gives you the option of dining at either. That said, I’d be going to Sabatini’s each and every day!

I had bought when it was in the mid 20s. When it got down to the $8 range, I bought a few hundred more. If the stock gets back to around $12.50, I’ll sell all but 100 and using average pricing, I should break even on the sell order, plus I’ll still have the other 100 shares for OBC eligibility with a basis of around $800. Of course, the share price has to get up there at some point. That is the risk one takes.

Depends on what you are drinking. If your $12 cocktail is now $15, then the $10 a day increase at 3 drinks a day is moot (you’d be very slightly ahead on the. Package vs PAYG once the gratuity is added) but if you are drinking $6.25 beers and say that they go up to $7.25, then the math is not in your favor.

If I have 8 cocktails every sea day on a world cruise, then upon arrival back in San Pedro, I’m not leaving via the gangway, but rather out of the hole in the side of the ship on a fork lift, along with the rest of the “luggage” 😉

I’ve had a drinks package on all my cruises since they started offering them back in 2013, with the exception of 2 three day positioning cruises between Los Angeles and Vancouver (we were in a suite on those 2 cruises, so a few mimosas with breakfast, plus one more in a coffee sippy cup to go, set the morning up right and the dual mini bar setups kept us going until dinner). Back in 2013, there was no 15 drinks limit and I’m pretty sure all our dinning table occupants easily breached that limit on NYE on that cruise! 🥳 I plan on retiring in the next year, or two and number 1 on the bucket list is a round the world cruise (so I’ve been paying attention to a few recent posts/blogs and in addition, I did a little research on the ‘23 and ‘24 sailings). The plus package for the ‘23 sailing was around $5500 pp and the ‘24 sailing is around $6600 as the cruise is 111days, so I’m looking at an increase of ~$2200 for two people. I was on the fence at $5500pp as the consensus is 3 drinks a day is break even on the package, but that means a minimum of 333 drinks on the cruise. Not sure my liver is up for the challenge, but even if I drink less, with a package, there are no nasty surprises at the end of the cruise. $6600 pp is a bridge too far for me. I think I’ll opt for the standard fare, pay grats as I go, buy 1 four device internet package for the two of us (I’m elite, so get the 50% discount) and pay by the drink at the bar, plus augment that with the in-room mini bars (I’m assuming a refill for each of the 5 cruise segments that make up the RTW itinerary) and supplement with the corkage fee on a mixed case of my own wine as I embark in San Pedro. It also means I can return to one of my favorite cruise activities that I haven’t done since the packages came along and that is have a local beer freshly poured from the tap at a bar at each and every port of call along the way.

Thank you for taking the time to reply to my question. Here’s hoping that it means 5 mini bar fills on such a cruise 😉

My Sept Alaska cruise was one out of my 2 for 4 where I actually did receive confirmation that the OBC had been applied and I got a new booking summary via email

The confirmation mail can be hit, or miss. I’m 2 for 4 on confirmation emails on my OBC requests.

OBC for stockholders is non refundable

Thank you for replying. If you look at your cruise history, you should see past and upcoming cruises (not sure what it does with actual cruises under way) that should show the number of cruise credits earned on past cruises, or the number to be earned on future cruises. In my history, I see a 14 day Caribbean cruise that I took in 2016 that earned me two credits (I was not in a full suite) as that particular itinerary could be booked as two 7 day cruises. I was not elite back then, but I would assume that I would have had 2 mini bar set ups. One at the start of each 7 day segment.

How many cruise credits will you get on the 111 day world cruise? Just curious.

I too can now see an Internet plan to purchase* on my Feb 20 2023 five day Cabo cruise. Previously it had shown the “no Internet plans to purchase” error. The plan is showing at $125 for the five days, which is crossed out and a new total of $62.50: is being quoted. I sail the day of the price increase and I have the plus plan. $125 for five days without discount would indicate that they are charging $40 a day, then giving a $15 a day credit for plus (new price for 1 device after Feb 20) to make it $25 per day and then applying the Elite 50% discount to get to an extra $12.50 per day. Significantly higher than the $5 a day I paid for the additional 3 devices on my Nov 22 TATL. For such a short cruise I’ll pass this go round and make do with disconnecting-reconnecting multiple devices. *I have not updated my android version of the medallion app since before the Nov 22 TATL and I still see the new plan info.

If they do give you grief about the folding chair, just inform them that you are using it as a substitute to replace the barrel chair in your stateroom, that they removed pre-COVID! 😉

I’m finding it hit or miss on the same bleedin request! I have a 5 day Cabo cruise in Feb and a 10 day Alaska cruise in Sept. On Dec 19 22, I sent an email to have the OBC added to both cruises. Sod’s law was truly in action and the Sept cruise was credited that very morning, but the Feb cruise wasn’t. I had held off on booking shore excursions for the Feb cruise until I have the OBC credit applied. I waited a few days and sent a follow up request for the Feb cruise and so far, it’s been crickets. I’ll follow up with a 3rd request when I get back Stateside next week.